Sukkur Police flouts IG Sindh’s orders, first case filed against journalists in Sindh

Ahsan Baloch
SUKKUR : An emergency session of Sukkur Union of Journalists (SUJ) was called at Sukkur Press Club, the meeting was presided over by the president of SUJ Imdad Bozdar, member FEC of Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists Javed Jatoi, Vice President Khalid Bhanban, General Secretary SUJ Ahkar Rizvi, Joint Secretary Syed Jawad Shah, Finance Secretary Kashif Phulpoto, Office Secretary Deedar Unar and Executive Committee members Fareed Soomro, Azhar Dayo and Ishaq Khoso were present in the session. While Secretary General Shahzad Tabani Sukkur Press Club, Joint Secretary Shahid Chana, Executive Committee member Jalaluddin Bhayo, Mujeeb Warind, President of Court Reporters Association Saleem Sahto, Shafi Abro, President of Safma Sukkur Chapter Salahuddin Qureshi, Vice President Syed Masood Al Hasan Zaidi, General Secretary Safma Sukkur Faisal Arain, Finance Secretary Danish Zaidi, members of the Executive Committee Qazi Zia, Naseem Memon took special part in the meeting. The proceedings of the session were conducted on the case registered by the Sukkur police against the senior journalist Hameed Kamboh, the incident of the policemen breaking into the house of Hameed Kamboh and trampling the four walls and arresting his sons by torture. During this session, the affected journalist Hameed Kamboh informed the participants of session that, he and his tenant are already facing a court case and three petitions against his tenant for eviction, harassment and defamation are pending in court, but that tenant is still influential and with the help of the sources, continuous threats are continuing, on which Sukkur police playing a biased role, ASI Lal Dinu Mehr of A section police station suddenly entered his house along with a constable when Hameed Kamboh was not at home. The police officers not only threatened his sons but also entered the house and trampled the four walls, tortured his three sons and nephew and; locked them in the police station. When Hameed Kamboh was informed about the incident, on reaching the police station, he was also locked up and tortured, and the said ASI continued to threaten him with death. The CCTV records of the police station also recorded police abuse. On this occasion, a large number of journalists reached the police station and rescued the journalist and his sons and nephew as well. However, the Sukkur police did not stop and registered an FIR against Hameed Kamboh and his three sons. On this occasion, SUJ President Imdad Bozdar condemned the whole incident on behalf of SUJ and questioned the role of Sukkur Police saying that Sukkur Police had flouted the orders of their own superiors. A biased approach has been taken against the journalists and a case has been registered against a senior journalist, He added. President SUJ Imdad Bozdar informed the participants of the meeting that repeated attempts were made by the union officials to SSP Sukkur and his subordinate officers, on which the SSP assured to conduct an inquiry and deliver justice and later a case was registered against the victim journalist only. He further said that, the behavior of the police is condemnable and the efforts of SSP Sukkur pitched a conspiracy to demolish the efforts of his seniors of establishing an atmosphere of cooperation between the media and police. On this occasion, Secretary General SUJ Ahkar Rizvi said that a few days ago, DIG Sukkur had given orders to form a special committee to prevent incidents like false cases and harassment of journalists and the cases against the journalists were ordered to be registered in the light of the recommendations of this committee, but SSP Sukkur has adopted this attitude of ignoring the orders of his superior officer. On this occasion, the participants of the meeting unanimously expressed their solidarity with the affected journalist and agreed to fight a legal battle against the whole issue and demanded the elected representatives who approved the Journalists Protection Bill and senior officers of Sindh Police that, the cases against Hameed Kamboh and his sons should be removed, the incident should be investigated in a transparent manner and strict action should be taken against the police officials involved.